FamilyCruiserUK

Totally agree with you. Love royal, love their ships, love the food (mostly) love the staff. I have already paid for all that in my cruise fare, so i expect a known ship as i research it, staff to do their job, (im not needy so dont need to be pampered or served 1 minute quicker then the next person) and good food, well that one can be hit and miss lol. However being asked to pay in advance for a service that i have yet to receive is a no no. I will tip if i feel its above and beyond and on top of their basic job specifics but its my choice not royals. Graturites should be earned not expected. It would be morally better to pay the staff a known wage each month without the need to "fleece" your customers to make up the wages. Considering how much the CEOs get paid, and thats all the staff not just the few that get money from Graturites. However royal know, at least in the US, that passengers will pay them as its their culture. So if you keep paying them then people cant moan about the price rises. I have no idea how much the staff get paid and how much of that they have to pay for food and accommodation onboard, however i am sure that there isnt an issue with recruitment and the wage is soo much better then what they get in their home countries. I have seen the odd video he tube that explins some of it and tbh they have more disposable income then a lot of people i know. Royal will not put the Graturites in with the cruise fare, as one of their selling points is the initial advertised price which we all know always goes up once you start the booking process. I suspect they may start to do it in Europe as lots of cruise lines are now doing it, well for UK cruise website bookings, P&O, MSC, Marella and some NCL cruises. However the US is their primary market. But as i always say its up to the individual if you pay Graturites or not and how you tip the staff, and people should focus on themselves and not worries what others are doing. 👍

Royals uk website kept crashing this morning when i was looking at cruises,...,.......prob due to seeing the really high prices currently on offer lol 🤣 computer said no lol

Juat completed a weeks cruise on World Europa out of Barcelona. Have submitted a review if it helps anyone. https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=714085 Any questions please ask away.

Hiya I think most cruises bow are full or very busy tbh. Its become very popular. Your dates should be ok in regard to kids on board. There will be a few but not that many as its not school holiday dates. Again as with any cruise, people will drink excessively and we all have no idea when and where that will be. We went on Virtuosa end of March last year. Was too cold to be outside in the pools but the pool deck are is massive and lots of sunbed space. In fact the pools on MSC are the best at sea IMO, we have just sailed on world europa and the pools on her were massive and deep. The high ropes was fun as well. The only time the ship felt busy was in the buffet, just felt squished and packed most of the time TBH.

Always disappointing when you pay a lot of money to go on a cruise. They can get jammed packed sadly. However i have to say, do your research.....even us across the pond we know not to cruise if you can help it during spring break or major US Holidays from the US. As for the pools yeah i agree with you there. Hate the small pools, standing room only. Just been on MSC world Europa from Barcelona and the main pool was huge, biggest and best at sea. Even inside pool was big and deep. The buffet is a buffet, will get packed and is a free for all. But to only be closed for 1 hour isnt really a hardship.....🤔 As for hand cleaning, same on royal and all other cruises. Not enforced at all now. Even on our cruise last week on Europa, hardly any one washed their hands even though there was a lady stood there with a bottle of hand wash..... I take my daughter out of school and in the uk we get a fine of £120 to take her out, however its much cheaper cruise prices and less children outside of school holidays. But that is dependent on my daughters school attendance, behaviour and work effort. She knows that and works very hard at school, carrot and stick work hard and she gets rewarded with a cruise holiday.

Royal shouldn't charge for the towels even if people steal them. Imo, they are the worst pool towels at sea.....

There are soo many variables as to why the cruise line decides to leave people behind. Its not like they can sit around all day with their feet up waiting. Port fees, as in keeping the port staff longer, security and rope people. Fuel to next destination if they have to speed up Same as aircraft at airports they have time slots to move in and out of ports with pilots Opening times of shops onboard. Money lost from sales. Keeping to schedule, prob lots of pressure from above. Longer hours for the staff, some may be cutting into their scheduled breaks, before their next job around the ship. And that's just off top of my head. By all means take any kinda of trip you want but make sure your back in time.

Health and safety. Imagine if someone got injured or fell in. Pilots are trained to board a vessel safely. NCL would be sued until their eyes bleed so it was safer for the captain to say no. Now the tour operator should take full responsibility and costs, but i doubt they will.

As others have said on our back to back out of Miami we had to all meet up in the theatre, although some people thought they were too important to meet up with us. So we all spent a while sat waiting for them to be "found". Collected 2nd weeks cruise cards. There was tea and coffee and cakes at the venue. Had to get a ticket to go to the toilet though. We were escorted off the ship through customs, face scan and then back onto the ship. Tbh i found the whole exercise pointless and very time consuming. We wanted to get off and have a look around Miami but by the time the "Important" people were found and we were off and on it wasnt worth getting off again. Every P&O cruise i have been on you got a set time to get to a venue and have passport checked/stamped and given the following weeks cards, was super quick and easy. Took no more then 30mins and that was including cruises in the Carribbean.

We in UK had to ring them to get our military discount. Last used it feb 2023 and was fine not.used it since as get a better diacount through other means. On the UK website there are no extra military selections.

From the UK i struggle to understand how people do NOT have travel insurance for any holiday outside of your country, and a cruise ship is outside of your country. The cost of medical care on cruise ships as far as i know is not covered by your home medical insurance. My travel insurance for thee of us for world wide travel for up to a year is £157 surely its worth paying that compared to a visit to the medical centre on the ship.

Only Virtuosa so far however we are sailing on world Europa on friday 5th april 2024 😁

Whilst it cant be a good feeling or experience to miss your ship, the fact is there are rules in place and if you fail to follow them then its your own responsibility. They should have made it back on time or ensured if something out of their control happened then they contact the powers that be. But at the end of the day its 100% their fault and RC has every right to leave them behind.

Even more annoying is the fact americans can price match their carnival cruises, so royal, carnival, p and o etc. So if they see a cheaper price they can ring up and get it re priced. Here in uk we as usual get screwed over.........

Fantastic we have two booked this year but not with royal and two booked next year with royal. All are 7+ days as below 7 days is just a weekend away trip. 🤣

Congratulations on your 41 years of marriage and also your recovery from cancer. Great pictures looks an amazing ship. Safe travels.

I would say just relax and enjoy it. Do not compare cruises and companies as what they offer is different. Have a great trip and enjoy rhe views and ship 👍

We just checked in for our world europe cruise begining of april. We were originally given a 2pm boarding time. On the online check in we could change it to 11 am. 👍

As others have posted i think its 18 euros and takes around 15 mins each way. It droped us off on Ballindamm street which is a 5 min walk to the town hall. Once you fyet off the ship we had to queue for about 15 mins to get the shuttle tickets then walk across to the coach, when full it heads to town. Or its a 40min walk through an old tunnel Elbtunel which is nice historical landmark.

I really enjoyed rhe room we had on Virtuosa, esp the coloured lights above the door on outside, they indicate to the room steward, to make up room, or sleeping off etc. a good bit of tech, sad i know. Also loved the pool area, its a big area with pool and sunloungers and rhe pool big enough for a swim. We did some evening swims with the lights on and hardly anyone around..was good. Glad your having a great time.

Hamburg is a good trip..we went to the miniature wonderland museum and it was so good.

Sounds like your having a great time. Good food and good company. I do love sitting down and having a great chat with people from different cultures and learning about different ways of life. Hope the weather being good and your looking forward to the ports

Please keep going. I do love hearing Americans thoughts and reviews on Europe and European cruise lines. Enjoying the culture and History. Even for us in the UK "London prices" are ridiculous and to top that off more and more automatic Graturites or services charges are appearing on bills (cheques). We are travelling in our 2nd MSC ship in 21 days, World Europa out of Barcelona cant wait tbh. Hopefully you will have calm seas and good weather heading to the MED.

Wonder what the refit will include..... What works on Iona What dosnt work on Iona What facilities could P&O do better.

Great review looks a fun cruise. Would love royal to do a starwars one. Props, costumes, characters, actors, themed stuff in bars, shops and food. Plenty of spare stuff i imagine going cheap from Disneys stupid expensive theam hotel.